


stars in my coffee

by lostinthefire



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Baking, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Cookies, Domestic Fluff, Fluff without Plot, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 09:04:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11551968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinthefire/pseuds/lostinthefire
Summary: Bucky doesn't sleep well, so he finds other ways to pass the time.





	stars in my coffee

**Author's Note:**

> Written a long while back, I was digging through my folders and found this piece of fluff. So yeah, it lives here now instead of my GDocs.

It’s amazing the hobbies you can take up when you can’t sleep. Bucky has found himself doing so many stupid things because of that. Even when sleep did come, it was restless, uncomfortable and riddled with the things that haunt him.

Sometimes, it was just easier to be awake.

Currently, he’s working his way through a recipe that was supposed to result in nebula cookies. It’s soothing work in it’s way, following the directions and then having a product to show for your work. It’s comforting to know that, as long as he follows the recipe, he won’t fuck it up. 

Besides, it leaves the apartment smelling great.

He knows that it worries Steve when he does stuff like this, staying up and baking or reading or teaching himself the violin for days on end. It feels good though, keeps his body moving and his mind active. Too much of his life was spent in a state of half-awareness, the lines of reality blurring into nightmares far too often. Too many times, he found himself wondering if he was awake, in hell, dreaming or all three at once.

He can hear Steve moving in the other room, getting dressed and shuffling out to join him, half asleep yet somehow still concerned that Bucky was awake before him again. It’s almost amusing in it’s way. If Bucky were a different person, he would actually start doing it on purpose because the whole thing is weirdly endearing. 

“That looks awful.’ Steve's voice is thick with sleep when he speaks, the inner war he's fighting to reach full awareness clearly not quite won.. He’s pointing at the black ganache sitting in one of the bowls and then looking at Bucky like he has two heads when he’s laughed at.

“It tastes better than it looks, I swear.”

He shrugs, wrapping his arms around Bucky's waist and resting his chin against his shoulder. “Sleep’s not happening anymore, is it?”

Bucky shakes his head. “Afraid not.” Leaning back into the warmth, he closes his eyes for a moment. The lingering bits of tension from his nightmares bleeding away as he relaxes.

“That’s fine.” Steve nuzzles his neck, leaving a quick kiss there before straightening up and moving to swipe a bit of the blue icing that waits in another bowl. 

“Why space cookies?” he asks after a moment, catching sight of the tablet that had the recipe on it.

“No real reason,” Bucky admits. “I thought it would be fun. Also, I figure I can give them to Foster.”

Steve laughs a little. “She’ll appreciate it, I’m sure.”

“We’ll see.”

He watches him as he moves to make a pot of coffee, letting Bucky get back to his work. He doesn’t have much to do, just to mix the purple icing he’ll need and then wait to pull everything together. It’s not a hard process but it’s still enough to keep him engaged with the world around him.

They turn out pretty well for the most part. Bucky is dubious about putting the little white star sprinkles on the finished products but decides it on a few of them anyway. Then he wraps half of the cookies up to send off to the rest of their acquaintances and a third of them for Jane Foster herself. That leaves the last bit for the two of them to enjoy with their coffee.

Steve snatches up a cookie, taking a bite while going to sit at the kitchen table. “You’re getting really good, you know.”

Bucky nods. “Glad to know that my cooking skills are appreciated.” 

“Definitely.”

He takes a cookie, savoring it for a moment before making a small, almost apprehensive noise. “We should probably go out today.” It’s a reluctant statement but one that’s probably true all the same. 

“Possibly, but not right now. We can go give people cookies tonight or after you’ve gotten a little more sleep.” Steve reaches out, fingers brushing Bucky’s right hand with care and a tinge of worry. “We don’t have to do anything this second.”

“Maybe,” he agrees. “Maybe we can do that.”

Steve gets to his feet and takes the cookies with him. “Come on, I say we take over the couch for a while. Maybe watch something stupid on TV.”

“Cookies and people making idiots out of themselves. You know the way to my heart.”

Steve looks over his shoulder, smiling wide. “Good.”

“Good,” he agrees, getting up and following after.

He probably won't get more sleep any time soon, it’s hard to say, but he knows that he’s more likely to relax enough to drift off with Steve there and the soft sounds of something in the background, even if it’s just their own breathing and commercials on TV.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find recipes for nebula cookies online, I know I found one when I was writing this and it looked so, so tasty. Then again, I'll eat anything if it's blue.


End file.
